Teach Now (Teacher Certification): Standards and Objectives of ELL Programs

Module 2 Unit 4 Activity 2

This was our second group activity. We had to write a summary with the standards and objectives of two different ELL immersion programs, and make another mindmap comparing the two. I did Korea Poly School as it is a popular and successful immersion program here: 

Standards and Objectives of ELL Programs

By: Caitlin Teg and Analia Kim

Korea Poly School:

Korea Poly School has one of the most popular chains of English immersion programs in Korea. They are successful because their early childhood program is very demanding and all of the students who finish their early childhood program become stage 3 or stage 4 ELLs by the age of 6. Their program is divided into 3 areas. Their first and most popular program is the ECP (Early Childhood Program) which caters to children from ages 4 to 6. The second program is for elementary children from the first grade to the fifth grade, and the last program they offer is for junior-high students from sixth grade to the ninth grade.

Their mission is to "inspire students to achieve the highest standards of intellectual and personal development through a stimulating and comprehensive education program, encouraging students to become critical thinkers and problem solvers as well as promoting them to value their bilingual skills" (KPS, 2009).  There is a tough entry exam for those who do not initially start in their program.This program was developed for kids who studied in an English speaking country and are now living in Korea, but plan to move back at some point. Korea Poly School’s goals is for those children to be integrated back in regular classrooms without going through an ESL program.

Their objective for the ECP is for students to be able to read and listen to several different books for an array of purposes and from multiple genres, be more elaborate in their spoken language, with longer sentences and more intricate vocabulary through retelling and reenacting stories, and to write in complete sentences and simple stories.

For their elementary program their objectives are to understand and interpret texts, including written as well as audio and visual texts, to be able to formulate a variation of types of texts, including those critical to the workplace, to effectively communicate and interact with others in group settings, and to express information through different methods of presentation.

The objective for their junior-high program is for students to comprehend and interpret all types of texts including written, audio and visual texts, compose a variety of writing types, including those critical to high-stakes English tests, to effectively communicate and interact with others in group situations, and to incorporate their concept knowledge in their writings, presentations, and when taking high-stakes English tests.

The program in general creates successful results. These students are reading and writing at a higher level than native English speaking children, but according to the mothers and children who attend there, the workload is extreme (around 2 hours of homework for the ECP students) and most need to hire tutors outside of the program to help them keep up with the program. 

California Dual Immersion Programs:

Despite the push-back bilingual education programs have received in the past number of years, in California, some schools have begun implementing what they are now calling Dual Immersion Programs. These programs are for English Language Learners and their native English-speaking peers. Whereas, in many ELL programs, students are fully immersed only in their second language, these programs emphasize the use of both the first and second languages to ensure that students acquire all necessary cognitive skills and tools required to grasp complex concepts.

If, for example, students were in an Italian-English Dual Immersion Program, kindergarten students would receive 90% of all instruction in Italian. Each year, the percentage of English instruction increases by 10%, so that, by the time students are in fifth grade, half of their instruction is in Italian and the other half is in English. Studies show that students who are able to master concepts and written language in their native tongue first are better prepared to use those tools to master a second language. For the first year or two, students are exhausted and they struggle, but once they break through the barrier, they surpass their native-English speaking peers in most subject matters and are at a clear advantage.

Becoming bilingual at an early age helps students with problem-solving, decision-making, and other important brain functions. Thomas Edison Elementary has a Spanish Dual Immersion Program. Their mission is to “meet the needs of all students by equipping them physically, emotionally, and academically to become healthy, self-confident, and independent learners through a student-centered, multicultural, technology-integrated, collaborative program within a safe and secure environment.”

Dual immersion programs, like those at Thomas Edison Elementary, adapt state standards as needed and teachers are responsible for making sure that curriculum matches these standards, although which content is applied and how it is taught is up to the individual teacher’s discretion. According to TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), students will “build knowledge through content-rich nonfiction,” and “reading, writing, and speaking [will be] grounded in evidence from both literary and informational text,” and students will have “regular practice with complex text and its academic language.”

The goals of such dual immersion programs, as stated by the Glendale Unified School District, are to ensure students acquire language proficiency and high academic achievement in both English and Spanish, or any other language the students are studying in their respective dual immersion program. Students will also develop positive self-esteem, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, greater mental flexibility, and superior capacity for abstract thought.

Many parents are enrolling their kindergarten-aged children in dual immersion programs, because they see the long-term benefits of the acquisition of two or more languages in our rapidly changing world. Like many popular programs, there is limited space. Another factor parents must consider is the fact that once children are past kindergarten, it is almost impossible for them to catch up to their peers who have been receiving instruction in two languages for at least a year. Children in first or second grade often cannot pass the required entrance exams to be admitted into these programs, because they have not benefited from the dual immersion education program. On a more positive note, if parents want their children to enroll in a language that is not yet included in their district, they may apply to have that language added so that their child has that option.

References

"Academy: Mission Statement." . koreapolyschool, 2009. Web. 10 June 2014. <http://www.koreapolyschool.com/Business/BizAcaIntro.aspx>.

Glendale Unified School District : What is Dual Language Immersion ? Web. 12 June 2014. <http://tees-glendaleusd-ca.schoolloop.com/file/1296917046940/4222003688804735212.pdf>.

Thomas Edison Elementary School: Mission. Web. 12 June 2014. <http://www.thomasedisonschool.org/school-mission>.

TESOL International Association. (2013, March). Overview of the Common Core State Standards Initiatives for ELLs. Alexandria, VA: Author. <http://www.tesol.org/docs/advocacy/overview-of-common-core-state-standards-initiatives-for-ells-a-tesol-issue-brief-march-2013.pdf?sfvrsn=4>.

Here is our mindmap:

mind42.com/mindmap/5a500a80-935e-43bc-97ad-706908542dab